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Bathrooms matter in the design world. The room itself is a canvas for architects and interior designers to showcase their talents in a way that helps set a property apart from the pack. More fundamentally, though, the bathroom "experience" is a critical factor in the discriminating consumer's willingness to spend and select one property over another.

For these reasons, the humble bathroom fittings the faucet, the showerhead, the towel rack and even the doorknob are far too important to overlook when building or remodeling hotels, luxury condos, and high-end homes. Property owners are increasingly demanding one-of-a-kind fittings to deliver a unique experience.

Symmons Industries, the 70-year-old manufacturer of commercial and residential plumbing products, has long served this market with custom design and manufacturing services. The company broke new ground with the launch of a first-of-its-kind virtual design studio for architects, designers, and property owners, called Design Studio Live.

3D printed prototype of bathroom hardware designs

Design Studio Live is a web-based program that allows users to create their own products and receive color 3D physical concepts of their designs within four days, metal prototypes in approximately 15 days, and delivered the product for their property in as little as 16 weeks. With the help of this innovative new tool, architects and designers can create unique ideas that translate into exclusive fittings for their projects right from their desks. Users can begin by digitally paging through a virtual catalog of ready-made designs, dragging them to a virtual light box, and modifying them with Google SketchUp™, Adobe® Photoshop®, SolidWorks®, or any other 3D CAD program.

"Symmons is the only manufacturer offering fully customized plumbing fittings, and Design Studio Live makes it easier than ever for a designer to complete their bath design with products tailored for each project," says Eric Spear, Symmons' director of custom services. "We've built a process in which we can execute a custom design in the time it takes to flip through a catalog."

Symmons design consultants are available for program guidance or design advice. However, users are encouraged to experiment as much as they'd like because the tool is designed to encourage creativity. The Design Studio program is also a tool for tracking and managing the progress of a project.

Desafio

Fast-turnaround concept prototypes

Critical to the Design Studio Live formula is the ability to quickly and affordably churn out 3D physical models at high volumes. With this demand, handcrafting models was out of the question due to the time and labor involved. For Symmons, a 3D printer was the answer to creating a great custom service for its customers.

Solução

Color Jet Printing

They did just that; the ProJet CJP full color 3D printer printed 12 models in 3.5 hours at half the price of a single model produced by the competitive systems. Convinced, Symmons purchased the 3D printer to create 3D prints on demand, giving Symmons the final piece of the puzzle it required to realize the vision of Design Studio Live.

Resultados

A thriving Design Studio Live

The ProJet CJP printer and its printed prototypes are turning out to be the driving force behind Design Studio Live.

"The design process itself is exciting, but there comes a point when it's really helpful to see a tangible, physical example of it," says Spear. "By printing 3D models, designers can stop looking at their screens and see what the part really looks like in context and feels like in their hands."

3D prints also strengthen the relationship between an architect and a property owner. "Architects can slide a set of printed models across the table perhaps faucets of different sizes and shapes along with a red pencil," says Spear. "The property owner gets a rare opportunity to handle the models and mark them up. The architect comes back with revised models a couple of days later, and the owner is blown away by the architect's responsiveness."

Distinctive designs become real with CJP printing

3D printing has helped enable Symmons, venerated for the superior workmanship of its internal plumbing parts, to show its design capabilities. For example, the Mandarin Oriental, New York wanted a distinctive look and feel for its bathrooms, and their design firm turned to Symmons to help create the details of the design. The bath design called for a shower system that incorporated fittings with a ceiling-mount drench showerhead and a Roman tub filler that was both stylish and simple to operate. Symmons developed custom concepts for its client with an elegantly simple, single control for on/off, hot/cold operation, a feature that helped to overcome the language barrier many international guests experience. CJP models helped Symmons communicate a range of options to the client, which enabled the team to quickly close on a final solution. It was the same story at a Miami hotel where the prints helped Symmons refine the design of a vertical showerhead surrounded by chandeliers. Other satisfied Symmons clients include the Wynn Resorts, Four Seasons and The Ritz-Carlton, to name a few.

The 3D Systems ProJet CJP printer was printing at full tilt five days a week, 20 models a run, according to Spears. In the first four months of use, Symmons produced 4,000 prototype prints for a wide range of applications. Most were for client projects, but models also went to trade shows, "lunch and learn" seminars with designers and architects, and to Symmons industrial designers. "You can push the print button during morning coffee break and be passing around prototypes at lunch. These printers are enabling the kind of speed and part quality that is indispensable for Design Studio Live and all of our design work here," commented Spear.

The CJP printers and its unique color capabilities have yielded other surprising benefits. They help Symmons stretch design concepts and prototypes beyond conventional stainless steel, using color to accurately represent the popular finish of Onyx. Color prints also make great promotional handouts for instance, a brightly colored faucet model with an architect's name on it. Symmons even brings its 3d printer to tradeshows where it prints nonstop, making its booth a popular stop for designers and architects witnessing the possibilities of both Symmons designs and instant prototypes.

Whether at tradeshows or in Design Studio Live, 3D color printing enhances Symmons' business and brand by helping the company focus as much on the aesthetic considerations as the internals. The company is now able to prove that it can make the most beautiful "facades" or better yet, help customers make them.

"It's a great experience to be the first in market to do this," says Spear. "Our unique ability to host a full-service virtual design studio with 3D printing capabilities, and do it so painlessly, is a real differentiator and a powerful one that keeps us in top of mind to our clients. This printer's unique speed, color and affordability make this possible"